Empathetic Development

Ally Noormohamed
Jul 23, 2017 · 3 min read
Photo by Ilya Pavlov on Unsplash

This article is inspired by Christian Rennella, a computer engineer, who wrote about developers learning design. I believe that the industry needs developers who understand the empathetic approach to users, in order to develop better products for users. It can be difficult to be empathetic without experience in usability.

A research study by William Hudson concludes that “User-Centred Design is surprisingly difficult. One of the biggest issues, certainly for those with no HCI or usability experience, is a lack of appreciation of how users think and work. Their assumption is that users will approach and solve problems in the same way as the designers and developers of an interactive solution.

Here are three ways developers can gain deeper empathy: understanding human behaviour; considering user needs; and becoming partners with IxD.

Understanding Human Behaviour

Cognitive psychology helps us understand how people think and process information that affects or drives their behaviour, and overcome cognitive barriers. In his book, Don’t Make Me Think, Steve Krug discusses the principle of cognitive barriers in interface design. A barrier is anything that prevents a user from completing a task.

Barriers require effort to overcome. Daniel Kahneman’s book, Thinking Fast and Slow, explains two cognitive systems: one we use to make unconscious and automatic decisions, and another that requires conscious, deliberate decisions. The latter creates cognitive load, or the amount of mental effort being used by our working memory. When given a choice, a person will utilize system one as a basis for decision making because it’s effortless.

The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman proposes the premise that people blame themselves not for the lack of trying a product. Effort is not the issue; failure is the result of a misalignment of their mental models and the system (for example, your product).

Considering User Needs

Alan Cooper, the creator of Visual Basic, emphasizes that to be a good engineer, he or she must be “sympathetic to the nature and needs of the computer. But the nature and needs of the computer are alien from the nature and needs of the human being who will ultimately use the software…

Addressing people’s needs, abilities, and constraints requires that we align the user interface to their mental model. Their mental model is conceived by how they accomplish their tasks and goals with existing systems. Don Norman has written that “understanding the concept of mental models can help you make sense of usability problems in your design. When you see people make mistakes… the reason is often because they’ve formed an erroneous mental model.

Teams that do not understand this, risk building complicated system models which rarely align with all users. Encourage your team to use methods such as an empathy mapping workshop to understand what your users might perceive, think, and feel. There are several methods to validate the outcome including observing users, performing contextual inquires, card sorting and testing a prototype.

Development and IxD: Becoming Partners

In his article, Stephen Carver wrote that “too often, when developers mingle amongst themselves, an adversarial mindset creeps in. The attitude is that those designers over there just don’t understand. They demand strange and unusual things. Having knowledge of design will help to fight that mindset whenever it sets in. Recognize we’re all working towards the same goal.”

It can be difficult to create a harmonious team with different skill sets, work environments, and expectations. But you can build strong relationships between designers and product managers (and the rest of the organization) through constant communication and contributing your technical expertise to provide feasible solutions for the desired outcome. Ask to be included in usability research before development. A developer may notice something different that the rest of the team, improving the quality of usability research. Become an advocate for usable products by looking beyond the intricacies of code.


Have you developed other ways? How did they transform your work — and the experience of your users?

Let me know.

Ally Noormohamed

Written by

Mastered many glorious pursuits of diverse ingenuity but failed to learn the guitar or overcome the fear of heights. Practising human-centered design.

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